It was a match made in horror heaven.
Anthony Zuiker, creator and executive producer of the popular television show CSI, has joined forces with Tony E. Valenzuela of BlackBoxTV, the YouTube channel dedicated to horror, sci-fi and thriller films.
"I love to be scared," Zuiker said. "Tony's awesome; he's a genre guy. And I love the stuff on BlackBoxTV. It kind of kept me up at night thinking."
Zuiker said that the online space is the best artistic medium, because it allows you to be completely free and hardcore, as well as connect with audiences and talent looking for an authentic content experience. Valenzuela said that Zuiker changed the way people looked at television.
"The way that he tells stories is such a special and unique thing, like who else would you partner for when you're trying to break narrative online?" Valenzuela said of his new partner.
Valenzuela calls it a dream partnership. He said he was so excited when he heard one of Zuiker's ideas, that he threw a script he'd been holding and exclaimed "That's it!"
With television ratings dropping, I asked the pair if YouTube channels like BlackBoxTV are the future of content creation. Zuiker said that he is an example of a defector, someone from traditional media who's embracing content creation on YouTube.
"As we do online content creation that's original, we have more of a say." Zuiker shared. "That will now revert back to television. We are going full circle, but we are now in the defector phase."
"For me, there's no such thing as TV anymore, there's no such thing as as online, it's not film, there's screens," Valenzuela added. "I think we don't really make content specifically... we make content for the screen we are at."
Follow Anthony Zuiker on Twitter @zuiker.
Follow Tony E. Valenzuela on Twitter @MeTonyV.